Expanding Application Areas to Drive Growth in the World Carbon Nanotubes Market, According to New Report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

Follow us on LinkedIn Widely touted as the miracle material of the modern 21st century and rightly so given its remarkable and incredible electronic, thermal, and structural properties, carbon nanotubes have and will continue to remain key building blocks of technological revolution in the future. Discovery of newer application areas continues to evolve and will only gather additional momentum supported by staunch R&D focus on technology innovation. The potential laden outlook for carbon nanotubes can be thrown into sharp relief by its envisaged future use as receptacles for hydrogen molecules in fuel cells to power automobiles of the future, its use in collecting and storing solar energy in a manner hitherto not possible, and its use in healthcare in Nanodrug delivery systems. With electrical conductivity way superior to copper, with strength innumerous times stronger than steel, with weight even lighter than plastics, and with hardness that is superior to even diamond, carbon nanotubes not surprisingly are being used in myriad range of products.

Currently, the most immediate commercial opportunity lies in its use in manufacturing lightweight yet strong materials. In this regard, the ongoing technology trend towards miniaturization, reduced power consumption, reduced weight, and small form factors of semiconductor chips, throw plenteous opportunities for the growth of the carbon nanotubes market. In the semiconductor industry, for instance, energy efficient computing needs will open up a new window of opportunity for carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with CNTs flaunting the potential to replace traditional silicon technologies. As the Moore’s Law reaches its ultimate limits, carbon nanotubes will replace silicon to help break new grounds in miniaturization currently limited by the slowing of the Moore’s Law. However the future of the envisaged carbon electronics now critically hinges on technology developments that enable large-scale, low cost production of carbon nanotubes. The transition from being a just a research lab curiosity to a technology with real world uses is very significant and the capability to produce large quantities will significantly help the research community in expanding their experiments to build futuristic devices and companies to produce affordable products with lesser time to market leads.

The carbon nanotubes market is currently witnessing expansion in production capacities as leading players gear up to meet the challenge of mass-producing nanotubes at affordable prices. As a result of capacity expansion and realization of economies of scale benefits, prices of carbon nanotubes are witnessing declines. Price declines have been more pronounced for multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs), given that MWNTs are technically easier to produce at a large scale. Although, highly purified grades of CNTs still continue to cost thousands of dollars per kilograms, prices of mass market CNTs continues to fall in sync with capacity expansions. A continuous steady decline in costs will help the market achieve commoditization in the long-term. Russia and China currently spearhead low cost production of carbon nanotubes. Competitive pressures from alternatives like Graphene are also exerting significant downward pressure on prices of carbon nanotubes. Another interesting fallout of expansions in production capacity and end-use applications is the real environmental and human safety threats posed by CNTs, which are now growing stronger and larger by the day.

There exists growing market clamor over the need to identify carbon nanotubes as a separate substance from a regulatory standpoint, given that toxicology of CNTs are widely different from other types of nanoparticles. The regulatory environment, under this scenario, is beginning to toughen with growing concerns over the potential risks associated with CNT toxicology and continued CNT exposure during processing, production and handling of CNTs and products containing CNTs. The alarming lag between commercial advancements and research on safety, health and environment, is prodding governments worldwide to implement legislations that encourage responsible production, handling and disposal of CNTs.

While the carbon nanotubes market during the 2007-2009 recession mirrored the general weakness of the Nanotechnology industry during the period, the current European debt crisis has until now failed to dampen the R&D spirit of the research community. This is primarily because cutting edge areas of science remain as one of the privileged areas in an economy. R&D projects with longer-term vision and objectives are expected to hold on steady, primarily supported by the determination of players in this space to stay on the cutting edge despite the debt crisis and an uncertain economy. Companies, especially in high-end, expensive, advanced technology markets are responding differently to the crisis as compared to the 2007-2009 recession, which witnessed significant drops in investments. This time around, companies in Europe are keen on retaining their focus on research and development, guided by the growing realization of the fact that competitors especially from developing Asian countries are coming in stronger as a result of globalization. The scale of innovation therefore needs to be maintained if claims to new riches in untapped markets are to be made.

As stated by the new market research report on Carbon Nanotubes, Asia-Pacific represents the largest and fastest growing market worldwide. SWCNTs are forecast to witness rapid compounded growth of approximately 14% over the analysis period. Electronics represents the fastest growing end-use application flaunting the potential to wax at a projected CAGR of 10% over the analysis period.

For more details about this comprehensive market research report, please visit

http://www.strategyr.com/Carbon_Nanotubes_Market_Report.asp

About Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (GIA) is a leading publisher of off-the-shelf market research. Founded in 1987, the company currently employs over 800 people worldwide. Annually, GIA publishes more than 1300 full-scale research reports and analyzes 40,000+ market and technology trends while monitoring more than 126,000 Companies worldwide. Serving over 9500 clients in 27 countries, GIA is recognized today, as one of the world’s largest and reputed market research firms.